New Standards to Reduce Mansionization

New Standards to Reduce Mansionization

The L.A. City Council voted to implement new restrictions on mansionization, the increasingly common phenomenon of overbuilding and replacing older homes with colossal new developments.

As chair of the City’s Planning committee, Councilmember Huizar has overseen the development of this ordinance, which is in line with his efforts to address out-of-scale development in CD14 and across the city.The ordinance implements new restrictions and dissolves old exemptions that cleared the way for homeowners to build to the outer reaches of their property lines. The new ordinance will require 200-square-feet attached front garages be included in the total square footage of a home; garages were previously exempt from this count. In addition, homeowners were formerly allowed to build on up to 50 percent of their total property, and this number will drop to 45 percent in R1 residential zones.New requirements will also place tighter restrictions on hillside construction, reduce the minimum build size on small lots from 1,000, to 800 square feet, and do away with provisions that allow homeowners to construct larger homes in exchange for using green building materials. The "mansionization" ordinance has been sent to the City Attorney for review and will then return to the Planning committee and the City Council for a final vote.

New Standards to Reduce Mansionization

The L.A. City Council voted to implement new restrictions on mansionization, the increasingly common phenomenon of overbuilding and replacing older homes with colossal new developments.

As chair of the City’s Planning committee, Councilmember Huizar has overseen the development of this ordinance, which is in line with his efforts to address out-of-scale development in CD14 and across the city.The ordinance implements new restrictions and dissolves old exemptions that cleared the way for homeowners to build to the outer reaches of their property lines. The new ordinance will require 200-square-feet attached front garages be included in the total square footage of a home; garages were previously exempt from this count. In addition, homeowners were formerly allowed to build on up to 50 percent of their total property, and this number will drop to 45 percent in R1 residential zones.New requirements will also place tighter restrictions on hillside construction, reduce the minimum build size on small lots from 1,000, to 800 square feet, and do away with provisions that allow homeowners to construct larger homes in exchange for using green building materials. The "mansionization" ordinance has been sent to the City Attorney for review and will then return to the Planning committee and the City Council for a final vote.